Faces of Revolution: Personalities and Themes in the Struggle for American Independence

by Bernard Bailyn

Book Overview

Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Bernard Bailyn brings us a book that combines portraits of American revolutionaries with a deft exploration of the ideas that moved them and still shape our society today.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039449895X
• ISBN13: 9780394498959
• Release Date: August 1990
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.7" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Review from a U.S. history fan

The other reviewers have done a terrific job of reviewing this book. My short opinion is that this author did a tremendous job with the first and last third of the book. A little disjointed, it's not an easy read but within the first and third sections, lots of interesting information on the development of our great country.

a classic from the master

This is an excellent collection of essays dealing with, as the title suggests, the key people and ideas of the revolutionary period. It is extremely well-written and well-argued and draws upon a lifetime of scholarship. His biographical vignettes flesh out the personal characteristics and ideas of key figures (great description of John Adams: "driven and uneasy"). Particularly interesting among these were the two lesser known figures: Thomas Hutchinson and the unknown Harbottle Dorr. The conservative (especially in temperament) Hutchinson found himself unable to respond to--effectively, if at all--or understand revolutionary ideas or motivations. Harbottle Dorr, who I suspect will never appear in a textbook, kept a fascinating collection of Boston newspapers, which he indexed and annotated throughout the period; his story is a deep insight into what was driving "regular" revolutionaries and how they were engaging the ideas of the time.The thematic essays are also particularly good. "1776 in Britain and America: A Year of Challenge--A World Transformed" was especially enlightening. It places American events and ideas in the broader context of what was occurring in Britain; this annus mirabilis witnessed the publication not only of Paine's "Common Sense," but also Gibbon's "Decline and Fall," Smith's "Wealth of Nations," and Bentham's "Fragment on Government," among several other lesser known works. This was a world in flux, with ubiquitous economic growth and a population explosion--as well as vast movements of people. Existing government structures were insufficient in dealing with these dramatic changes, and so new ideas and ideologies--building on previous authors, such as Locke--circulated to address the new problems. The other thematic essays, in some way or another, also attempt to place the ideas and themes in a broader perspective--either of the physical world or the world of ideas.All in all, a great compilation of essays.

Faces of Revolution: Personalities and Themes

Faces of Revolution: Personalities and Themes in the Struggle for American Independence written by Bernard Bailyn is a delightful and informative read as it examines the background, origins and character of the American Revolution, with leading and representative figures and issues of interpretation; making a balanced statement of preceived life events and motivations.The author cleverly divides this book into twelve essays and these essays are divided into two major chapters. The first major division of essays is called Personalities. Personalities has essays on John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Hutchison, Thomas Paine and Harbottle Dorr. The last one I found to be of extreme interest as it looks at middle-income Americans at that time and how the American Revolution affected them. This was a real time-in-the-bottle look at how middle-income America looked at these times. Also, this first section covers how religion played a part in the Revolution as three biographical sketches complete this section and here we have Andrew Eliot, Jonathan Mayhew and Stephen Johnson. Here in the first section, we find that there was nothing inevitable about the American Revolution and it did not need to happen. According to Benjamin Franklin the Revolution could be deflected (1772 or 1773). What was inevitable, was America's emergence into the modern world as a liberal. democratic and captialist society.The second Section is called: Themes and the four essays contained here bring to the front ideological challenges and a society wanting change to home rule... but greater yet, who should rule at home. This book conveys something of the vividness of the personalities involved in the Revolution; to comment on some of the ways in which personalities and ideas intersected with circumstances and events, making an interesting read. This book shows the reader an essential spirit of eighteenth-century reform... its idealism and determination to protect the individual from the power of the state... something we cherish even today.

History shapes individuals; individuals shape history

'All history is biography,' the saying goes, and while that may or may not be true in the absolute, it's certainly true that the best way to understand how 'movements' and 'forces' affect history is by studying the lives of the individuals who shape, and are shaped by, them.Bernard Bailyn is one of our leading historians (maybe THE leading historian) on the American Revolution. His classic 'Ideological Origins of the American Revolution' casts a huge shadow, not least over this small but valuable collection of 'personalities and themes in the struggle for American independence.'Here, Bailyn gives us in-depth portraits of patriots John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine, as well as a fascinating portrayal of the loyalist Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson, one of the leading Americans of his time but almost forgotten today. And he introduces us to Harbottle Dorr, a Boston shopkeeper whose writings give us a priceless look at how the Revolution affected middle-class Americans. Then, in a special chapter on religion and the Revolution, Bailyn writes about three preachers and their experience of, and influence on, the themes and issues of American independence.The last two chapters, 'The Central Themes of the American Revolution,' and 'The Ideological Fulfillment of the American Revolution: A Commentary on the Constitution,' are alone worth the price of this volume.History has no stage on which to play out its drama save in the lives of individuals (unless you're talking about geology or astrophysics, I guess, but why ruin a good epigram?). A student of the Revolution, or of intellectual history, would benefit much from this fine, though lesser-known, work of an excellent historian.